1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of endovascular treatments and, more particularly relates to a guiding device for helping in inserting and advancing catheters and/or guidewires into blood vessels of a patient during endovascular treatments, the invention also being related to a method for inserting and advancing such catheters and/or guidewires.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Angioplasty and other endovascular techniques are well know and broadly utilized medical processes consisting of inserting catheters and/or guidewires into the vascular tree of a patient with the purpose of reaching a remote blood vessel site having a lesion. The catheters and guidewires must be carefully maneuvered and steered through the patient's vessels until reaching the site of the lesion. A premise and basic requisite in the handling of these techniques is to provide an accurate and non-traumatic positioning of the catheters and guidewires in the desired vessel site and in the advancing of the wires and catheters along the vascular tree.
Under predetermined circumstances two guidewires need to be inserted into a blood vessel under treatment in order to have one of the guidewires located in the desired site. When two guidewires are used, the exchange of the guidewires is performed by advancing a catheter over a first guidewire that had been previously inserted and located into the vessel. Once the catheter has reached the desired area the first guidewire is removed and a second guidewire is advanced through a lumen of the catheter so as to have the first guidewire replaced by the second guidewire.
Once the second guidewire is in position, the catheter is removed to leave the second guidewire in the desired position. Then, a preloaded guidewire, either carrying a stent or a stent-graft, may be inserted into the vessel along the guidewire already in the vessel. This operation is carried out with the purpose of installing a stent or a graft in the site with the lesion.
The above operations may be extremely cumbersome when the blood vessel defines a tortuous path for the guidewires and catheters. When a guidewire or catheter must be advanced through a tortuous artery, a second guidewire, parallel to the first one, must be inserted into the blood vessel to make the vessel straight in order to facilitate the advancing of the pre-loaded guidewire. The advancing of the second guidewire, however, entails the same difficulties like the advancing of the first guidewire.
There is therefore need for a new and improved guidewire and/or catheter guiding system and method which can overcome these difficulties.